What I want to do, I want to talk about having a wider takeaway, which is basically the width. The more width we can get in the backswing, in the takeaway, the slower, the smoother the swing is and the slow and the smoother the swing is, the more consistency we’ve actually got in the swing, so let’s demonstrate a bad takeaway. A bad takeaway will be sometimes snatching it. As you can see, that movement there, the club’s all over the place like a fishing rod. While going back from here breaking the wrist and you see this angle here, that’s just going to result in picking up and hitting down to the ground, so that’s an example of just to sort of completely bad takeaways but very, very common in the game.

So, we’re going to talk about this wide takeaway, how do we achieve it? We know what it can create. It creates more consistency, more accuracy, a little bit more distance for sure. This is what we will do. When you set up over the ball, I want you to concentrate on the club and the left arm being as one. I don’t want to push the club away with the arm, push it away so it’s in one piece. So, you can see that, everything is together in one line. Push the club away. Look at the extension. Look at the width I’ve actually got here. There is no wrist break, there’s no arm bend, just push the club away and you can see if I go slow I can achieve this position. Look at that width and this is what we’re after.

A wide takeaway, slow and smooth, lots of control there and then from that position, you can just imagine, coming back into the ball, back to the hitting area, it’s almost guaranteed you’re going to hit that ball exactly where you want because of that takeaway. Remember, the takeaway, slow, smooth, and keep this left arm straight. As you take the club back, we want you to be in a position not like this, but really be in a position where you push your arm and, of course, as you go back, there is a slight hinge of the wrist, so you end up with what I call the letter L, that’s the position. Arm is comfortably straight, the hands are here and that little bit of leverage helps bringing the club back down into the hitting area. The left arm is still straight here. So, we’re not changing the track from there. Go back, push the arm back, there’s the position and from here back to the ball and that takeaway will give lots of control, lots of consistency, lots of accuracy and that’s what we’re striving for here.

So, let’s give you a little bit of a tip to actually how we achieve this. Let’s put a golf ball down the ground and approximately about two feet behind the ball, we’ve got a tee peg and one way to do is to set up to the ball just like you normally and if this arm bends the chances are we missed the tee peg, we’ve gone straight over the top of it, so it’s too steep, it’s a baddie, the arms bent, the wrists, we’re out of position, but if we take that club back nice and easy and keep this arm straight, then from here we catch the tee peg and we’re not trying to hit the tee peg hard so it jumps out of the ground, we re just trying to hit the top of the tee peg. Again, from here, take it back and there again, there is a position. There is a very simple touch. You take the club back, we’re just catching the top of the tee peg, that says to us we’ve gone slow and low and that the left arm has remained straight and that’s going to put a lot more consistency into your game. Just work on that, it’s that simple.

2013-08-06

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What I want to do, I want to talk about having a wider takeaway, which is basically the width. The more width we can get in the backswing, in the takeaway, the slower, the smoother the swing is and the slow and the smoother the swing is, the more consistency we’ve actually got in the swing, so let’s demonstrate a bad takeaway. A bad takeaway will be sometimes snatching it. As you can see, that movement there, the club’s all over the place like a fishing rod. While going back from here breaking the wrist and you see this angle here, that’s just going to result in picking up and hitting down to the ground, so that’s an example of just to sort of completely bad takeaways but very, very common in the game.

So, we’re going to talk about this wide takeaway, how do we achieve it? We know what it can create. It creates more consistency, more accuracy, a little bit more distance for sure. This is what we will do. When you set up over the ball, I want you to concentrate on the club and the left arm being as one. I don’t want to push the club away with the arm, push it away so it’s in one piece. So, you can see that, everything is together in one line. Push the club away. Look at the extension. Look at the width I’ve actually got here. There is no wrist break, there’s no arm bend, just push the club away and you can see if I go slow I can achieve this position. Look at that width and this is what we’re after.

A wide takeaway, slow and smooth, lots of control there and then from that position, you can just imagine, coming back into the ball, back to the hitting area, it’s almost guaranteed you’re going to hit that ball exactly where you want because of that takeaway. Remember, the takeaway, slow, smooth, and keep this left arm straight. As you take the club back, we want you to be in a position not like this, but really be in a position where you push your arm and, of course, as you go back, there is a slight hinge of the wrist, so you end up with what I call the letter L, that’s the position. Arm is comfortably straight, the hands are here and that little bit of leverage helps bringing the club back down into the hitting area. The left arm is still straight here. So, we’re not changing the track from there. Go back, push the arm back, there’s the position and from here back to the ball and that takeaway will give lots of control, lots of consistency, lots of accuracy and that’s what we’re striving for here.

So, let’s give you a little bit of a tip to actually how we achieve this. Let’s put a golf ball down the ground and approximately about two feet behind the ball, we’ve got a tee peg and one way to do is to set up to the ball just like you normally and if this arm bends the chances are we missed the tee peg, we’ve gone straight over the top of it, so it’s too steep, it’s a baddie, the arms bent, the wrists, we’re out of position, but if we take that club back nice and easy and keep this arm straight, then from here we catch the tee peg and we’re not trying to hit the tee peg hard so it jumps out of the ground, we re just trying to hit the top of the tee peg. Again, from here, take it back and there again, there is a position. There is a very simple touch. You take the club back, we’re just catching the top of the tee peg, that says to us we’ve gone slow and low and that the left arm has remained straight and that’s going to put a lot more consistency into your game. Just work on that, it’s that simple.